CategoryHierarchies.com

Mandarin Chinese, also known simply as Mandarin, is a prestige dialect of Chinese and the official language of China. It is the most widely spoken form of Chinese and is used as a lingua franca among speakers of mutually unintelligible Chinese varieties. Mandarin Chinese is a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family and is written using Chinese characters, known as Hanzi. As the official language of China, Mandarin Chinese plays a central role in the country's education system, media, and government. It is also an important language for business and diplomacy, with many international organizations and multinational corporations using it as one of their working languages. Mandarin Chinese is just one of several varieties of Chinese, which are often referred to collectively as "Chinese dialects." However, these varieties are so different from one another that they are essentially separate languages. Mandarin Chinese is the largest and most widely spoken of these varieties, followed by Wu Chinese, Cantonese, Min Nan, and Hakka. In summary, Mandarin Chinese is a prestige dialect of Chinese and the official language of China. It is a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family and is written using Chinese characters. As the most widely spoken variety of Chinese, Mandarin plays a central role in China's education, media, and government, as well as in international business and diplomacy.